THE PLIGHT facing Middlesbrough in social and economic terms is to be spelled out to the Prime Minister David Cameron.

An open letter is to be sent to the Prime Minister by Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon.

He is also to call on the town’s two MPs, Sir Stuart Bell and Tom Blenkinsop to call a meeting of all MPs in the Teesside area to mount a co-ordinated approach to the Government about financial proposals which will impact not just on the town but the whole area.

And he wants Middlesbrough’s four Conservative councillors and Councillor Maelor Williams, the authority’s only Liberal Democrat, to consider any action they can take to bring the attention of senior politicians to the borough’s situation.

Mr Mayor revealed his plan of action last night at a meeting of Middlesbrough Council.

It came as Mr Mallon is preparing to announce next month his proposals for the next multi-million pound package of council spending cuts. They are likely to amount to £12m.

He also said that in the six years from 2010 an estimated £1bn was being cut from public spending in the five boroughs in the Teesside area.

Mr Mallon told the council the cuts being made were too deep, too quick and too savage. They were robotic, he added.

“Cuts are being made by a machine rather than people.

“For a town like Middlesbrough the Government is on railway tracks and it reminds me of a runaway train.

“At present there is no understanding of the social deprivation factors affecting Middlesbrough and therefore the future of the town.

“There is no understanding on the part of the government as to the damage they are doing to Middlesbrough, the Tees area and the North-east as a whole due to their unwillingness to listen to reasoned argument.

“On occasions it feels like the Civil Service is conducting the orchestra rather than the government performing the task,” said the Mayor.

He said he would be writing to Mr Cameron within a month.

He said the letter would be “circulated to all local, regional and national newspapers highlighting the position facing this town in terms of our overall response to the social deprivation issues, which will have a serious, adverse affect on future generations and the economic stability and progress of the town as a whole.”

In the statement to the council Mr Mallon said he understood the Government had, through austerity measures, to cut the level of public expenditure.

But he said the number of changes to funding, their extent and the pace they are being introduced was unprecedented.

The various changes included significant reductions in central government support to local authorities; support to police and fire authorities, welfare benefit payments, funding to support housing development and public health funding.

“I estimate that had the level of government financial support in existence at October 2010, continued to the present and for the next three years, the public sector in Middlesbrough would have received a total of £229m more resources to support the people of Middlesbrough.

“As far as the Tees Valley area is concerned, I estimate we will lose over £900m over the same period,” Mr Mallon said.

He said that with other factors he had not taken into account the actual figure of public sector funding being lost across the Teesside area over the six years would be in the region of £1bn.

He said he was making the statement to start a debate about the challenges to be faced, to provide an opportunity to establish whether other issues need to be covered; and to set the scene for the budget setting process for the council for 2013/14 and beyond.